who inhabit Olympus.'

O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the Gods, know
that if you become worse you shall go to the worse souls, or if better
to the better, and in every succession of life and death you will do
and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like. This is the
justice of heaven, which neither you nor any other unfortunate will
ever glory in escaping, and which the ordaining powers have specially
ordained; take good heed thereof, for it will be sure to take heed of
you. If you say: I am small and will creep into the depths of the earth,
or I am high and will fly up to heaven, you are not so small or so high
but that you shall pay the fitting penalty, either here or in the world
below or in some still more savage place whither you shall be conveyed.
This is also the explanation of the fate of those whom you saw, who had
done unholy and evil deeds, and from small beginnings had grown great,
and you fancied that from being miserable they had become happy; and in
their actions, as in a mirror, you seemed to see the universal neglect
of the Gods, not knowing how they make all things work together and
contribute to the great whole. And thinkest thou, bold man, that thou
needest not to know this? he who knows it not can never form any true
idea of the happiness or unhappiness of life or hold any rational
discourse respecting either. If Cleinias and this our reverend company
succeed in proving to you that you know not what you say of the Gods,
then will God help you; but should you desire to hear more, listen
to what we say to the third opponent, if you have any understanding
whatsoever. For I think that we have sufficiently proved the existence
of the Gods, and that they care for men: The other notion that they are
appeased by the wicked, and take gifts, is what we must not concede to
any one, and what every man should disprove to the utmost of his power.

CLEINIAS: Very good; let us do as you say.

ATHENIAN: Well, then, by the Gods themselves I conjure you to tell
me--if they are to be propitiated, how are they to be propitiated? Who
are they, and what is their nature? Must they not be at least rulers who
have to order unceasingly the whole heaven?

CLEINIAS: True.

ATHENIAN: And to what earthly rulers can they be compared, or who to
them? How in the less can we find an image of the greater? Are they
charioteers of contending pairs of steeds, or pilots of vessels? Perhaps
the